Why is this research important to Alberta?
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global threat to human, animal, and environmental health.
- While increased antimicrobial use drives rising resistance, how resistance genes move between humans, animals, and the environment remains poorly understood.
- Understanding these pathways is essential for developing effective control strategies and policies.
- Alberta is uniquely positioned to address this challenge through extensive microbial DNA sequencing datasets from wastewater, hospitals, and agricultural settings.
- These datasets enable researchers to track the movement of resistance genes across interconnected populations.
What is the goal of this work? How will genomics be used?
- In this project, the team will establish AMR-BRIDGE, an AMR research framework that will:
- conduct a systematic survey of all existing AMR surveillance resources in Alberta,
- leverage these resources to model the degree to which antimicrobial resistance genes move between One Health reservoirs in Alberta, and
- apply these findings to develop a concrete series of recommendations that will facilitate systematic AMR surveillance province-wide.
- The project includes researchers from three institutions, University of Calgary (Drs. Herman Barkema, Ian Lewis, Michael Parkins and Diego Nobrega), University of Alberta (Drs. Simon Otto and Claire Kamaliddin), and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (Drs. Tim McAllister and Rahat Zaheer).
- The Alberta leaders for this project are linked to and work closely with national integrated surveillance programs (i.e., CIPARS, CNISP, CARSS).
- This project is meant to remove silos and coordinate surveillance initiatives while complimenting national surveillance without duplication.
What are the expected benefits, and how will the research findings be shared?
- The resource mapping will provide the computational infrastructure and integrated genomics datasets needed to model antimicrobial resistance (AMR) transmission across the province.
- These resources will support high-impact research on AMR transmission dynamics.
- The developed transmission models and targeted gap analyses will generate critical evidence linking antimicrobial use (AMU) in agricultural, environmental, and clinical settings to measurable human health impacts.
- Demonstrating this connection is essential, as AMR-related conditions such as sepsis can cost more than $25,000 per patient, providing a strong economic rationale for sustained surveillance investment.
- This project will generate the empirical data needed to support health-economic models.
Related Resources
Findings or more information can be accessed through:
- UCalgary’s AMR One Health Consortium website: https://research.ucalgary.ca/amr
- News article: One Health at UCalgary named WHO Collaborating Centre to tackle antimicrobial resistance
- News article about One Health at UCalgary: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/adv/article-one-health/
- Feature article by Alberta Innovates: The Health We Share